Louis Pasteur (1822-95), the famous French chemist, spent his life in the investigation of problems in industry, agriculture, and medicine. His discoveries in the use of vaccination for disease have saved countless lives. He is most noted for his discovery of the cause of fermentation which resulted in the pasteurization of milk and controlled fermentation of wine. He effectively put to rest forever the common belief in the spontaneous generation of life, much to the chagrin of modern evolutionists. Not so well known is his contribution to an understanding of chemical bonding in crystals. When only seventeen years old, he investigated the crystallographic, chemical, and optical properties of crystals such as tartaric acid and sugar.
Pasteur discovered that certain crystals have a polarizing effect on light. Some crystals rotate light to the right, or in a clockwise direction, while others rotate light to the left, or in a counterclockwise direction. This is called dextrorotation and levorotation respectively, coming from the French words for right and left. While examining sugar crystals, he found that certain crystals polarized or rotated light to the right, which he called dextrose. Other crystals rotated light to the left, which he called levulose. So he was able to separate crystals that looked exactly alike into two separated piles according to their opposite optical properties. Today we know that corn sugar, or sucrose, is a disaccharide composed of two simple sugars, glucose or dextrose, and fructose or levulose. They are exactly alike chemically, but their molecules are mirror images of one another.
Jesus pictured such a separation of everyone into two groups at the end of the world. He pictured the world as a wheat field in which a farmer planted good seed, but then while he was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat (Matt. 13:24-25). It was not possible to separate the wheat from the weeds until the harvest. At that time the weeds were gathered into bundles and burned while the wheat was stored in the barn (Matt. 13:30). Jesus also pictured the judgment as involving two distinct groups which He identified as sheep and goats. All the inhabitants of the earth will be gathered together and separated into two groups according to how they have polarized the light of the gospel. The sheep, whom we might call dextro-christians, will be placed on the right hand; the goats, whom we might call levo-christians, will be placed on the left hand. He will say to those on the right, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you" (Matt. 25:31). To those on the left He will say, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels" ( Matt. 25:41). So, which way are you being spiritually polarized, to the right or to the left? Our eternal salvation depends on whether we are "sheep or goats."
